Almqvist can be defined in several ways, with a base meaning of elm twig.

Why aren’t we Clarencesson or Clarencesdotter? Or Gustavsson and Gustavsdotter?

Well, the internets let me know that stable, heritable, family names came late in Scandinavian countries. Most folks were given a last name that combined their father’s name with son or dotter.  In 1860’s Sweden, last names that passed between generations and were not derived from your father’s first name became fashionable.

It looks like we were fashion forward, in 1840 my great-great-grandfather Klas received the surname Almqvist per Swedish birth records. His older brother Johan and younger brother Thure are recorded as Larsson at birth, however. I can’t find a birth record for his other brother Laurentius, who was probably born Lars and then changed it to the Romanized Laurentius when he became a preacher. I’m guessing he too received the Almqvist name, as that is what he passed on to his children.

Great-great- grandfather Klas’ children all received the surname Almqvist, starting in 1872 with Johan (whose middle name was Laurentius after his uncle).

I don’t have information on Johan or Thure’s families, so I don’t know if their children became Almqvists or not, but they both seem to have died with the surname Larsson.

Today, according to Statistics Sweden, there are 4,291 people who go by the last name of Almqvist in Sweden.  In the US there are about 1,250 people with Almquist as their last name.

In a future post I’ll talk about how great-grandmother Alfrida got the surname of Munter.